What Is Monitor Ghosting & How To Fix This Issue For Good

What Is Monitor Ghosting

If you ever played a fast-paced game such as a first-person shooter or any-other heavily intense game. Then, you may have experienced an afterimage effect on the display or a millisecond image lag. Within this, you will normally notice that colors will be distorted and the image may appear blurry, and you may not be able to decipher what’s around you and your surroundings.

This is known as ghosting and this small lagging effect can be detrimental. Being the difference between winning or losing the game. Thus, within the article, we will explain the effects and exactly “What Is Monitor GhostingAdditionally, keep reading and we will give you a step-by-step actionable plan In order, to help rid you of this problem permanently.

What Is Monitor Ghosting
What Is Monitor Ghosting

As previously stated, the ghosting phenomenon occurs when a display is unable to match or keep up, with whatever actions taking place within on the game. causing the image to appear smeared or blurry. But now you are probably wondering, what causes this ghosting effect? The two main prevalent aspects that you need to understand in order, to eliminate ghosting are refresh rate and response times.

Refresh Rate And Response Times

The refresh rate simply is a measurement of the number of times, your monitor is able to refresh and display a new image on the screen. For example,  if a monitor has a refresh rate of 60 hertz that means it is able to refresh 60 times in a second. And this refresh rate number varies among different monitors, on the current market with some monitors having refresh rates of  60HZ,120HZ,144HZ, and 240HZ.

Refresh Rate Image
Refresh Rate Image

Now response times are the amount of time that it takes for the CPU or GPU depending on your monitors, to display or update the image. Also as well as how fast pixels, can change from one color to another when the image has been transferred to the CPU and GPU. You want a lower response time because the higher this number, the longers it takes for your monitor to display a new image weather being drawn/created.

For example, if you have a monitor with a  3 millisecond response times, that means it’ll take 3 milliseconds for your display to draw or update to a new image. 

Monitor Ghosting Fix

Now that you are aware of  “What Monitor Ghosting” is, as promised we will give you a list of different solutions for “Monitor Ghosting Fix” That by the end of this article, you will be knowledgeable enough to rid this problem permanently. Allowing you to go back to enjoying your gaming experience.

Monitor Cables

If you’re using cables to connect to your system, then you might want to check the connected cables. To ensure they are all correctly and tightly secured and also not being tangled up, as this may be causing interference with the signals. And especially if the cable shield is weak.

Thus attempt to keep all cables separate, in order to help limit interference with one another. Additionally, if you also happen to have cables that are damaged or simply worn out, then you may want to consider replacing them or simply get newer cable shield protection.

Monitor display Software Settings

Also, the software that you are using may also be interfering with your game experience. If it happens to be outdated or not strong enough to power your games. To fix this issue check your settings and see what your monitor setting are set to, this may be different based on each manufacturer. Also be sure to check the Nvidia control panel and see if there’s an adjustment, that you can make to help get rid of this problem. Finally, it’s also a very good idea to make sure your drivers and systems are all up to date.

Consider A Newer Monitor

Finally, it may also just be time to get a new monitor. If you happen to notice that this issue is still prevalent and may be even getting worst. Then it may just be time to purchase a new monitor. If you plan to do this, here are a few factors to look at when choosing your new monitor.

  • High refresh rate
  • Fast response time
  • Low input lag

 Additionally, check out this article: (Best Monitor In 2020) Where we broke down the best monitor choices based on performance and value.

LCD Monitor Ghosting

Now let’s discuss how to resolve “LCD Monitor Ghosting”.This is when the image on the LCD monitor, continues to display/remain on the screen. Even when other parts of the surroundings have visually changed, which when put together causes a smearing or blurry pixel. 

Now if you have attempted, the solution listed above and none of them have resolved the problem then another solution, you can attempt on your LCD monitor is solving this issue through the OSD menu:

  • Go to the picture settings.
  • Scroll until you find and Select  “AMA Setting”.
  • Switch the settings from “High” to “Medium” or if possible limit completely.
LCD Monitor Ghosting
LCD Monitor Ghosting

AMA is abbreviated for “Advanced Motion Acceleration”  and this is directly correlated to the response time of the monitor also sometimes known as overdrive. Thus for LCD which are designed to switch Liquid Crystal molecules to different alignments. Where they’re able to produce and transmit different lighting creating the overall image.

And when your screen molecule are less than the speed, or the monitor refresh rate.  It appears with the ghosting effect of making the object blurry. And that’s why when you reduce the settings of the AMA, it reduces ghosting because it dispenses lower Liquid Crystal molecules.

Conclusion

There you go. Now you should be aware of what to look for within your response menu. In order, to help you find the best options for your monitor setting.  The goal for all is to synchronize your response time with your refresh rate. This will give you the best performance and most likely fix your monitor ghosting for good.

Additionally, if you still require greater performance then you may want to consider. A free-sync monitor but only do this if you have an  AMD Graphics Card or a G-Sync Monitor. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, these two will work in helping to eliminate the ghosting effect. As they work actively together with the issue of synchronizing the refresh rate and response time.